Congratulations to our 2019 Seniors Karateka of the Year – John Lenton
Our seniors continue to go from strength to strength with some terrific karateka making their way through the ranks throughout 2019. Choosing our Senior Karateka of the Year was a difficult task. I had narrowed it down to a couple of likely candidates and had my choice in my mind before asking the Yudansha for their thoughts on who it should be, and one name came up over and over matching who I thought it should be.
John is our oldest student and I say that with all respect and admiration. John will push himself the hardest in class, he will never give in and he will never stop trying. I have watched John over the years battle within himself about whether he can do it, and whether he will ever “get it” and each time he comes to class I see that he has improved and is getting more and more control of his body and his mind. This year I had the privileged of grading John to 1st Kyu (the last stage before black belt) and it was hard for me to contain just how proud I was of him for achieving this milestone.
John works equally as hard out of the dojo as he does in it. When traveling for work I will receive a notice of a workout of his kata and basics conducted in his hotel room or a nearby park. I hear from people that they would like to try karate but they are to old (some are 1/2 the age of John), it is to late to start (John was over 50 when he started), they don’t have time (John travels a lot for his work), and their body couldn’t handle it (John’s mind and body have improved as a result of his karate training). You can read about some of the mental benefits of karate that John has discovered here => John’s Story
For accepting no excuses, continuing to work hard and for setting a standard that others can hope to follow John is out 2019 Seniors Karateka of the Year.
